Running Away & Good Friends
by RavenclawQuidditchQueen
Summary: Sirius runs away after his parents attack him during Christmas Break of his fifth year. Remus and James try and help, but it's Lily who truly saves the day.


If you asked Lily Evans and Sirius Black to describe their relationship, you'd probably get a questioning look or two, a couple of "ums" and "I don't knows" and then Lily would probably answer with "acquaintances" and Sirius would probably smirk at you and walk away. Because, you see, Lily Evans and Sirius Black had a very strange relationship; one that not many people knew about. That all changed the night Lily showed up at the Potters' House over Christmas break of their fifth year.

* * *

That night, Sirius had had enough of his family. After the annual Christmas party his parents hosted every year, where Sirius had been a complete prat to his relatives who followed Voldemort, he had overheard a conversation between his parents while chatting with some of the normal guests. A conversation he wasn't supposed to hear.

"I vote we just get rid of him. Say someone slipped poison into his food tonight. We could blame it on those mudblood loving Bones' that Arcturus invited." Walburga Black whispered to her husband. She was staring at her son's back, who was across the room in front of the fireplace.

One of the few secrets Sirius kept closely guarded enough to never let his family know about, was that he was an animagus. His other form, Padfoot, gave him some extra abilities as a human too, like heightened sight, smell, and hearing, which was how he was hearing their conversation.

"Yes, you're right. He's become too much of a liability to the family." His father, Orion, agreed with her. "He spent the whole night talking to the Bones girl, what's her name? Abigail or something. We could blame this on her."

"Amelia, dear. And yes, we most certainly could." Walburga laughed quietly. "Would you like to do the honors?" At this point Sirius had enough. He quickly pulled his wand out of his robe and countered whatever curse his father had managed to throw at him. Orion looked shocked, but continued throwing curses at him, occasionally getting in a lucky shot. The two dueled, before Sirius managed to get off two quick Stupefys and knock both of his parents out.

Bruised and bleeding, Sirius dragged himself upstairs and grabbed and shrunk his trunk. He shoved it in his pocket before setting out as Padfoot towards the Potters'.

* * *

It only took him a couple of hours to get to Potter Manor from Black Manor as a giant dog. As he ran into the yard towards the house, James ran out the front door towards him.

"James Potter, get back in here. You don't know what that thing is." Dorea Potter yelled from the front porch of their house, as her husband ran after her son.

"It's Sirius, Mom. And if he's here, that means he's really hurt." James was right in that regard. As he reached Padfoot, the dog suddenly turned back into the scared fifteen-year-old boy and collapsed onto his best friend's lap.

"Mom, floo the Lupins', we need Remus... and get out any healing supplies you have!" James was frantic as he yelled orders to his mother. He picked Sirius up, carried him into the house and laid him down on the table.

"Sirius? Sirius! Can you hear me?" James was tapping Sirius' cheek and shouting into his ear.

"Of course I can you git. You're bloody shouting." Sirius whispered, not opening his eyes.

"Sirius, can you tell me what happened?" Charlus asked. Sirius' eyes opened at the sound of the foreign voice and he practically threw himself off the table.

"Sirius!" James shouted, though he was trying to do his best to keep his voice calm. He slowly made his way over to his best friend, who had curled himself into a ball in the corner, and slowly wrapped his arms around him. "It'll be alright." He whispered, as Sirius let his emotions out for the first time that night and cried into James' shoulder.

James just prayed that Remus would get there quickly.

* * *

Remus Lupin was laying on the couch, reading a book, in the living room when the telephone rang. You see, most magical households do not have a telephone, but Remus' mother, Hope, was a muggle and liked to have one to stay in touch with her friends.

When it seemed that no one else was going to answer the telephone, Remus got up. He contemplated just letting it ring until the person on the person on the other side gave up, as he was still a bit sore from the full moon a few days before, but he eventually dragged himself up from the couch and walked over to pick it up.

"Lupin residence, Remus speaking." He answered automatically. His mother had drilled into him basic muggle mannerisms when he was younger because she absolutely hated that his father did not know how to answer the phone, but the person on the other end of the line sniggered. Remus frowned, he was not in the mood for young, muggle pranksters. "Can I help you?"

"Oh Remus, don't get all grumpy about it. I just forgot you still answered the phone that way." The laughing voice of Lily Evans sounded through the phone. "I was just calling to see how your holiday was going, but if you're grumpy, I can call back tomorrow."

"Oh Lily," Remus laughed. "Sometimes I forget you were raised by muggles... and that I gave you this number in first year. I thought you were some dumb kids playing pranks." Remus paused and shook his head as he thought of some of the antics he and rest of the Marauders had pulled. "Or, at least, their idea of a prank." Lily laughed and the two continued to talk about their holidays and school until Remus' father walked into looking very somber.

"Hang on a second Lils." Remus said to his friend before turning to his father. "What is it dad?"

"It's Sirius." Lyall grimaced at the look on his son's face as he told him the news. "He's at the Potters'. He apparently ran away and is injured. James is asking for you to floo over and help." Remus' knuckles were turning white from gripping the phone so hard.

"Lily," His voice shook as he turned back to the phone. "I've got to go. Sirius is hurt and I need to go help."

"WHAT?!" Lily screamed.

"I don't know." Remus was shaking at this point. "I just know that he ran away and is hurt and he's at James' house. I've really got to go. Sorry." He dropped the phone back on the receiver and ran to the floo.

* * *

Lily Evans prided herself on being very calm in stressful situations. She was very calm when her sister brought her great lump of a boyfriend to Christmas. She was very calm during and after every attempt James Potter tried to get her to go out with him. She was even very calm when Diagon Alley was attacked by so-called "Death Eaters" last summer. But the news that one of her friends was hurt sent her into full blown panic mode.

Lily was pacing a hole in the floor in her kitchen when her parents came in the room. "Lily dear, what's wrong? We heard a shriek." Her mother, Elizabeth, sounded quite worried, not used to seeing her daughter so worked up.

"Sirius... hurt... Potters'... muggles... no magic..." Lily was seriously starting to freak out her parents with her mumbling and pacing. Even her sister, who had come downstairs to see what the commotion was about, worried for her sister's sanity.

"Lily honey, you need to calm down. You can't do anything until you're calm. Everything will be fine." Her dad started talking to her like she was a frightened puppy.

"Yes, calm. I need to calm down or I can't help him." Lily stopped pacing once she had gotten a bit more pulled together, and looked her parents. "I'm going to the Potters'. Don't wait up!" She ran past her parents and out the door after grabbing her wand and her shoes.

* * *

It took forever for Lily to finally get to the Potters' house. She had run over to Severus' house to borrow his floo, but his didn't connect to very many places, so she went to the Leaky Cauldron and then turned around and went to Marlene's house because she didn't know the floo address to the Potters'. Once at Marlene's house, after explaining to her and her parents that it was an emergency, she made it to Remus' house (because Marlene's parents didn't know the floo address for the Potters' either) and they sent her on her way to the Potters' where she was greeted by Mr. Potter and a wand in her face.

"Woah!" She stepped backwards into the fireplace and put her hands above her head.

"Who are you and what do you want?" He snarled, slightly glancing back towards the kitchen.

"My name is Lily Evans and I go to school with James and Remus and Sirius and I was on the phone with Remus when he got your floo call and I heard Sirius was really hurt and I just wanted to see if he was okay and if there was anything I could do to help." Lily knew she was rambling but the wand in her face combined with the leftover panic from earlier caused her mouth to have a mind of its own.

"Evans?" James' head popped out from around a corner. When he saw her, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh thank Merlin. Remus and I are rubbish at healing spells." He walked over and grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards the kitchen while he continued. "Although you can't really do anything when he fights you every time you try and touch him. I'm about ready to stun him just to get the bleeding to stop." She stopped in the middle of the hallway and looked at him. James' pajamas were smeared with blood and she could see his other hand shaking slightly. His normally tan skin was paler, even more so than hers, and his eyes were barely holding in tears.

"James." She breathed out in sorrow. She reached out, and doing something she'd sworn she'd never do, pulled him into a hug.

"I'm just so scared. They really screwed him up this time." He muttered into her shoulder, letting out a couple of tears he had been holding in.

"It'll be okay." She said, as she pulled away and gave him a gentle smile. He smiled back at her and the two resumed their trek to the kitchen, neither noticing Charlus standing right behind them.

* * *

They both made their way into the kitchen and what Lily saw made her stop in her tracks. Sirius was curled up in the corner, against the cabinets. He was surrounded by a small pool of his own blood and was silently sobbing. He was wearing dress robes and a nice shirt and pants underneath, but they were covered in tears and holes. Remus was crouched in front of him, far away enough so that he couldn't get hit by stray limbs, and talking to him in soft, soothing tones, quiet enough that Lily couldn't make out what he was saying. When she walked in, he turned around, a look of surprise on his face.

"Lily?" Remus asked. "What are you doing here?" Sirius looked up from where he was.

"I came to help." She gently knelt next to Remus, never taking her eyes off of Sirius. "I knew you boys were rubbish at healing spells and would muck something up."

"Not me." Sirius slurred, shocking everyone but Lily. He picked his head up slightly and looked at her. "I'm bloody brilliant at everything." Lily just smiled, shook her head, and lightly chuckled while everyone else just looked on shocked.

"Well, you're something. That's for sure." Lily replied, slowly inching closer. "Now, you have three options. The couch, kitchen table, or James' bed."

"What?" All three boys chorused together. Lily looked at the other two with amusement before turning her attention back to Sirius.

"Well you're not staying in that corner all night and I'd really like to close up those wounds before one of my best friends bleeds out, so you have three options. Pick one, we'll move there, and I'll heal you." Lily said, rather matter-of-factly.

"I... I don't want to get blood anywhere." Sirius mumbled as he slowly started to loosen up a little bit.

"Nonsense." Remus chipped in before Lily could. "We're wizards after all, getting rid of a little blood is no problem. Won't even stain Aunt Dorea's couches, the table or James' bed." He moved just a touch closer to Sirius as he said this.

"Yep. And even if it did, it would just give Mum an excuse to buy new furniture." James followed Remus' lead and slowly moved closer, coming from Sirius' side so that he didn't feel trapped.

"Come on then. Which is it?" Lily asked after a moment of silence.

"Couch." Sirius muttered before reaching for James to help him up.

* * *

After James and Remus had gotten Sirius settled on the couch, Lily had gone through and worked her magic, healing Sirius until he was as good as new, with the help of the boys. Well, good as new but sore as a workhorse. Charlus and Dorea had mostly stood in the background, offering their two sense if needed, but staying close enough in case of emergency.

Once all was said and done, the four teenagers collapsed in the sitting room. Sirius on one couch with his head in Lily's lap and James and Remus curled up in the opposite. Dorea had thrown a couple of blankets over them and once she had been assured, multiple times, that Remus' and Lily's parents weren't going to worry that they weren't coming home, she went to bed.

Lily was running her hand through Sirius' long hair and listening to the soft snores from the boys across from her when Sirius spoke up, "Thanks for coming Lils. You're a good friend."

That was the moment that the dynamic of Lily Evans' and Sirius Black's friendship changed, and it was a moment neither of them would ever forget.


End file.
